I&B ministry seeks to make set-top boxes interoperable

New Delhi, Dec. 9 -- The information and broadcasting (I&B;) ministry is planning to discuss the set-top box (STB) interoperability issue with the Department of Electronics and Information Technology and the Bureau of Indian Standard (BIS) in an effort to ensure interchangeability of STBs between various service providers.
Currently, STBs are tied to specific direct-to-home (DTH) platforms and cannot be used interchangeably across different operators.
In a written reply in Rajya Sabha, minister of state for I&B; Rajyavardhan Rathore said that the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) had recommended changes in existing DTH guidelines, in its recommendations on 'Issues relating to New DTH Licenses' submitted in 2014, "which will ensure technical compatibility and effective interoperability among different DTH service providers".
"The inter-ministerial committee (IMC) constituted for the purpose of examining the Trai recommendations has recommended that the matter may be taken up with Department of Electronics and Information Technology and Bureau of Indian Standard. The ministry of information & broadcasting has accepted the recommendations of IMC," Rathore said.
Currently, India has six private DTH firms: Zee group-owned Dish TV India Ltd, Reliance BIG TV Ltd, Tata Sky Ltd, Videocon d2h Ltd, Sun DirectTV Pvt. Ltd and Bharti Telemedia Ltd. State broadcaster Doordarshan also runs a DTH platform for free-to-air channels called DD Free Dish. In November, Dish TV and Videocon d2h had announced a merger to form a new entity Dish TV Videocon Pvt. Ltd. The merger is still subject to regulatory approvals.
However, considering the cable digitisation drive in India, Trai has been trying to push for STB interoperability in the entire industry and not just DTH for the past one year. Earlier in April, Trai had started the pre-consultation process on STB interoperability in broadcast TV services and sought responses from different stakeholders of the industry.
The regulator had also hired 12 experts to look into the technological challenges involved in allowing subscribers to use the same STB for different service providers, for which the Centre for Development of Telematics (C-DOT) has been regulator's nodal partner. The expert panel is expected to come up with a status update report in a few weeks. The panel had already started pilot testing for interoperability in October.
Published by HT Syndication with permission from MINT.